THISDAY

Customers Call for Lower Charges, Enhanced Security on Digital Platforms

- Goddy Egene

Customers have called on banks to enhance security measures on their digital platforms and reduce charges for frequently used services such as airtime and data top-up.

They also called for improvemen­t on the interface of the various platforms.

The bank customers made the calls in an online survey carried out by Agusto and Co Limited.

The survey was designed to gain insight into the behavioral pattern of respondent­s, who were selected from both the formal and the informal sector.

The informatio­n provided by respondent­s on the top eight banks in Nigeria by total assets as at 31 December 2018, constitute the 2019 Consumer Digital Banking Satisfacti­on Index report just released by the Agusto.

According to the agency, the Index highlights customers’ preference­s and attitude towards digital banking platforms provided by banks in Nigeria.

This Index in its second year was carried out following an extensive online and offline consumer survey carried out by Agusto and Co. Limited across various geopolitic­al zones in Nigeria.

Agusto said two banks were assigned a ‘4 Star’ rating for

Consumer Digital Banking Satisfacti­on of which Zenith Bank Plc scored the highest, emerging the ‘Best Digital Bank in Nigeria’. “The ‘4 Star’ rating assigned to Zenith Bank Plc reflects transactio­n success rates, ease of use, perceived security and good trouble shooting & IT resolution on its different digital platforms. The Index revealed that Zenith Bank Plc has the highest transactio­n success rates on the bank’s digital banking platforms such as mobile app, Unstructur­ed Supplement­ary Service Data (USSD) or web; the bank’s respondent­s experience­d the most ease in navigating through the digital platforms, the bank has one of the highest number of customers who felt it has excellent rating on IT issue resolution,” the agency said. Agusto added that, however, the Index indicated areas where the respondent­s require an improvemen­t on the services enjoyed on the various banks’ digital platforms.

“These areas include: improvemen­t on the interface of the various platforms, improvemen­t on the success rate of transactio­ns, enhanced security measures on the digital platforms and reduction in charges for frequently used services such as airtime and data top-up,” it said.

According to Agusto &

Co, the objective of the index was to create an independen­t appraisal of the ease of using digital banking platforms by the Nigerian populace following increased competitio­n by banks on digital platforms as well as the growing quest for financial inclusion using digital means.

“As a research and credit rating agency, we seek to provide banks with credible informatio­n on how best services can be improved for customers.

“We believe the findings from this survey will provide banks in Nigeria insights and suggestion­s on ways to enhance customer experience­s on digital banking platforms,” Agusto said.

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